1.8.4-Kingedmundsroyalmurder
Brick!club chapter 4: of story truth, ideals, and identity So in this chapter we return to our cliffhanger and find out what happens when Javert confronts Jean Valjean. And it turns out that what happens is that Fantine expires from shock and stress. This is also the part where Hugo drops all hint at pretense and goes back to just calling Valjean by his birth name. (Though, if we’re going the ‘Valjean and Madeleine are constructed as two distinct identities’ route, then this is Hugo signalling to the reader that the Madeleine identity, which has been retreating for the past several chapters, is well and truly dead and Jean Valjean has returned completely.) we’re gonna do this by character rather than chronologically, mostly because I feel like it. Fantine is so far gone that she’s lost the ability to process nuance of any kind, so she immediately casts Javert as the wrathful demon to play against Valjean’s angelic savior. And they both completely rock her worldview and she can’t cope with it. I suppose it’s some mercy that she wasn’t lucid enough to really understand that Cosette wasn’t there at all. So it’s the shock of finding out that Valjean is not who he says he is that kills her in the end. Her system just can’t deal with any more shocks, I suppose. I think it was Pilf who called this a second snowball to the back, though this one is metaphorical. She is, as others have put it, dying of Symbolism more than anything else (though dying of shock is a Thing and I don’t find it that far-fetched). Even after she’s dead though apparently something of her still lingers, because Valjean’s words bring the hint of a smile to her dead lips, or at least the illusion of one. I really like this sentence: “Il y a des illusions touchantes qui sont peut-être des réalités sublimes.” (There are touching illusions that are maybe sublime realities.) It reminds me of the difference between lived truth and story truth, which I may have brought up here before. To quote Tim O’Brien, from whom I stole this concept, “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.” I think in some ways this is part of what Hugo’s trying to tell us throughout the book? I dunno, maybe that’s stretching things, but it seems like it would fit in really well with the way he keeps pretending that he’s recording a true story rather than creating fiction. The way this resonates with so many of us is testament to the amount of truth this story contains, and yet technically it’s fictional. I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with this but at some point I really, really want to take a close look at the character of Hugo-the-narrator and his presence in this book. But not right now. So let’s move on. Fantine is infantilized. Again. I shouldn’t keep being surprised by this but I am. "La face de Fantine en cet instant semblait étrangement éclairée. La mort, c’est l’entrée dans la grande lueur." (Fantine’s face in that instant seemed strangely lit. Death is the entry into the great light.) More light symbolism. I feel like the reading of light=heaven is overly simplistic here, though presumably it’s working on multiple levels. I’m actually super terrible at figuring out symbolism though, so I’ll leave the dissection of nuances to other people. Right, backing up, let’s talk about Valjean for a bit. He’s gone fully back to being Valjean, though there are definitely parts of Madeleine still in there. But this is Valjean who is subservient to authority but still manages to be defiant, just like back in the galleys he was mostly obedient except for those times when he wasn’t. He’s making it quite clear that he still has power over the situation and over Javert. He’ll be respectful and call Javert ‘Monsieur l’Inspecteur’ and come quietly but he also flat out threatens Javert and refuses to be cowed. I wonder if part of him doesn’t want to stop being in power, not out of any kind of megalomania or anything, but just an acknowledgment of the fact that he knows what it’s like to be on the bottom and he knows what it’s like to be on top and it’s a damn sight nicer when you’re the one giving the orders. (We could talk about the problems of command, but I don’t think I’m making a particularly controversial statement when I say that it was more fun to be mayor than to be a convict.) So Valjean refuses to back down entirely and that completely enrages Javert. I half wonder if part of the reason Javert is so upset is not only that Valjean keeps blithely disobeying him but that he keeps doing it so calmly. He’s not behaving like a convict, not really, and that’s got to be weird. I don’t think Javert consciously realizes that it’s weird, but I wonder if that’s part of his deal here, not just the fierce joy at having been right and having his world order restored. But anyway, Valjean politely but firmly refuses to jump when he’s told to and instead dismantles the spare bed and very unsubtly threatens Javert with one of the sharp pieces. Seriously, “Je ne vous conseille pas de me déranger en ce moment.” (I would not advise you to bother me right now.) Can he get charged for threatening a law enforcement officer? (He also accuses Javert point blank of killing Fantine, which isn’t illegal but is again more direct than you’d expect.) He prays over Fantine and has his forever unknown conversation with her corpse, and then goes quietly as he promised he would. I have to wonder what he would have done if Fantine had lived and he been allowed to get Cosette. Surely he realizes that once he’s gone they’re not going to allow Fantine to receive the same level of care and anyway she’s obviously not long for this world. Did he think at all about what would happen to Cosette herself, or was it all about making it up to Fantine? In some ways he’s seeing her like Fantine does, as an abstract goal that will make everything better. And then we have Javert, who is on a total power trip for most of this chapter and it’s great. It’s interesting to see how his internal state, which we got last chapter, is translated into his words and actions here. He also sees Valjean as a concept rather than a person, which makes three for three on being bad at remembering that people are people. For Javert Valjean is basically his redemption, his proof that his instincts are not wrong. It’s also the end of years of suspicion and chase. I love that he basically glares criminals into submission. That’s particularly impressive since, if I recall correctly, his eyes aren’t super visible. We also finally get to see Javert laughing, which has been mentioned before but never actually witnessed until now. It does sound quite terrifying, especially if you’re Fantine and already incredibly confused. So he’s ordering around Valjean and everything finally feels right in his universe. As he says, “Gredin de pays où les galériens sont magistrats et où les filles publiques sont soignées comme des comtesses! Ah mais! tout ça va changer; il était temps!” (Unnatural country where galley slaves are magistrates and where prostitutes are nursed like countesses. Ah, but! All this will change at last.) We already knew that Javert really, really hated how Madeleine ran his town (“please don’t give me your charity; it’s bad enough when you do it to other people”) and now things will finally go back to the way they should be and it’s all because of him. The man’s certainly earned his power trip. On the other hand he doesn’t try to apprehend Valjean physically, though he threatens to. He rationalizes away his disinclination to call the guards as an unwillingness to give Valjean time to escape, and I assume he doesn’t just try and tackle him because he knows he’d be overpowered. But there’s still that underlying belief that Valjean will come, though I don’t think Javert quite realizes that it’s there. There’s no way in Hell he’s going to let this man out of his sight, but he’s willing to give him time and space to pray and just glare from the doorway. Like I said, partly self-preservation, but I don’t think it’s entirely that. And so the chapter ends with Valjean agreeing to go with Javert, presumably without handcuffs required. Commentary Sarah1281 I don’t think Valjean was really thinking ahead all that much (it is not something he excels at) and planning on what would happen with Cosette regardless of if her mother was alive or dead and he had to go to prison soon but in this case I think his habit of throwing money at his problems would make up for things. The sisters at the hospital like her anyway so if Valjean left enough to provide for her care and Cosette’s care then it would be alright. Even if Fantine was dead if he left enough for Cosette to be taken care of she could be put in some school or convent somewhere by the nuns. It wouldn’t be the best life she could have but it’s better than the alternatives.